by David Rogers
After what she’d gone through so far, she was not counting on things staying peaches and cream. She’d like it if they did, but she had to plan for nightmares.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.” Dennis said, reaching for a fresh syringe, one sealed in a wrapper and already containing some clear fluid in it. “This will keep the inflammation down and help promote healing. Daily examinations for the next few mornings and a shot at each.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s really not.” he grinned. “Keep it wrapped like it was, nice and snug but not too tight. Stay off it as much as you can, keep it straight, don’t flex it or use the muscles in and around the knee.”
“Okay.”
“I’m serious.” he said as he laid the wrapper aside and put a hand on her thigh to steady her leg.
“So am I.” Jessica assured him.
He jabbed the needle in and injected some of the medicine, then pulled it out and jabbed her in a different spot to inject some more. “Every three hours you’re going to unwrap it and put some ice on for fifteen to twenty minutes. Every three hours today and tomorrow at least.”
“At night too?”
Dennis hesitated, then shook his head slightly. “No, at night keep it elevated in the bed. Prop it up on some pillows or something and sleep on your back. Waking up to ice it will do more harm than just sleeping with it up will, but during the day ice it. The rest will help you. Don’t give yourself freezer burn, but you need to cool the knee down pretty good if you want to keep the swelling down.”
“Ice every three hours.” she repeated. “I’ll go to the cafeteria.”
“No, stay off your feet as much as you can.” he said as he finished with the shots. “I’ll tell Mr. Carter to make some arrangements for someone to bring you some. We’re trying to keep the swelling down as much as possible, so you’ll heal faster.”
“I understand.”
“The more it swells, the longer you’re going to be limping.” Dennis said as he put the syringe down.
“Dennis, I’m not arguing.”
“You’ve been a little difficult so far.” he said with a wry grin.
She looked at him for a moment, stopped herself from glancing over at Candice, then took a calm breath. “Things have been pretty crazy since I hurt it.” she told him. “You know that.”
“Yes.” he said softly.
“Now that we’re here, I’m going to take it easy.”
“I still think you should take a few days to stay in bed.”
“There’s a lot to do. The things that need doing from a desk I can do, which keeps someone who’s not hurt from having to sit at that desk.” she said, thinking of Vanessa’s anger over the scheduling and use of the hands they had available. The woman’s anger didn’t necessarily bother her; but the thinking behind it did. Both because it raised questions about Vanessa’s intentions, as well as how things going undone might affect the safety of the facility.
“I’m not fighting that fight again.” Dennis said as he started cleaning thing off the little stand.
“Good.”
“Alright, I’ll let you get dressed, then I need to finish packing a bag to take with me into town.”
“I hope you can help them.” Jessica said as he dumped the used syringes into a sharps container on one of the counters, along with the alcohol pads.
“I’m sure I can.”
He left the tray on the stand and went outside, closing the door behind himself. Jessica started unraveling the sheet she’d been using for modesty. “Sweetie, can you hand me my pants?”
Candice stepped over and handed Jessica the slacks, which she’d been holding while she stayed out of the way. Partially undressing in front of Candice wouldn’t have been Jessica’s first choice, but she flatly refused to leave the girl standing out in the hallway, and the infirmary was only a single small room.
“Mom, I . . . can I ask you a question?”
Jessica paused in her attempts to get the slacks on her left leg; which was tricky when she was trying very hard not to bend it. “You can ask me anything. You can always ask me anything.” There was a very serious tone in Candice’s voice, cut through with a large dose of doubt and tension.
“Are Mr. and Mrs. Morris bad people?”
“Wh—” Jessica began, then caught herself just in time. She managed to discard her second response as well, and fell back on the old parental standby. “What makes you think that?”
Candice squirmed a little, looking down at her shoes. “They . . . they don’t seem like they want to help anyone.” she almost muttered.
Though she had her own thoughts along the exact same lines, Jessica didn’t want to have to get into them with Candice. While the girl had shown considerably more resilience in the face of all the hell she’d been through since all this started, more than could have reasonably been expected, she was still only ten. Plus Jessica wasn’t entirely sure herself, though she was definitely curious and alarmed at some of what she was seeing out of Dennis’ brother. Especially out of his sister-in-law.
“They helped us. They’re still helping us.” Jessica said after a moment.
“Yes, but isn’t that just because Dr. Morris is your boss?”
“Maybe.” Jessica admitted. “He is my boss,” – though she mentally added “was” – “but he’s also my friend too.”
“What about everyone else?”
Jessica felt for the sheet and made sure it was still draped in place, then patted the table next to her. “Come on, sit up here with me a minute.” Candice stepped closer and hopped up with her hands braced on the edge of the table while Jessica caught her under the arms and heaved her the rest of the way up. “Ooof, you’re getting so big.”
Candice smiled briefly, but she mostly just looked up at her mother with searching eyes. Jessica sighed lightly and hugged her daughter’s neck. “Sweetie, you remember we discussed the rules, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell them to me?”
Candice’s eyebrows and forehead crinkled up as she thought. “Don’t let a zombie touch me no matter what, do what you say period, don’t assume people aren’t sick, don’t assume people aren’t bad guys, and . . . the last rule doesn’t apply anymore does it?”
Jessica grinned, though without any serious humor. “No, you shouldn’t go back to Atlanta to Dr. Morris’ house if something happens to me. That’s my fault, I’ll have to come up with a new emergency rule for you if case something happens to me, but forget about that right now. Did you know I have rules too?”
“You do?”
“I do. And they’re even more important than yours.”
Candice looked up at her for several moments. Jessica smiled and leaned in to touch her forehead against Candice’s, so their noses were almost in contact. “You want to know what they are?”
“Yes.”
“Rule one for me, make sure you’re safe. Rule two for me, make sure you’re safe. Rule three, make sure you’re safe. Rule four, make sure you’re safe.” Jessica said quietly. She was proud of how even she was able to keep her voice against the titanic surge of emotion pounding against the back of her throat as she spoke. “There are more, but can you guess what they are?”
“They’re all about keeping me safe?”
“They are.” Jessica confirmed, rubbing her nose across Candice’s several times before pulling her daughter into a hug and burying her head next to the girl’s. “I love you so much, that any other rule doesn’t matter, so I don’t have them. You’re all that matters.”
Candice’s arms squeezed around Jessica’s midsection. “I love you mom.”
“I love you too Candy Bear. Now listen to me. I’m proud of how brave you’ve been, and how brave you’re still being. You need to keep being as brave as you can.”
“I will.”
“Good girl. Now, as for what’s going on around here, I don’t know yet. Right now we’re safe, and that’s what’s impor
tant. It’s good you’re paying attention to everything, paying attention to what’s happening all around you. Keep doing that. But you can’t talk to anyone else about what’s happening except me. Do you understand?”
“Uh . . . sorta.”
Jessica leaned back and looked into Candice’s eyes. “I know it might not make a lot of sense right now, but it’s important. You know how hard being brave is, right?”
“It’s hard.” Candice nodded. “It sucks.”
Jessica chuckled. “It is, and it does. You’re so right. And that’s why it’s important for you to not ask other people the kind of question you just asked me. Being brave is hard for everyone, and not everyone is as good at it as you are. Some of them are only a little brave, or are only acting brave when really they’re so scared they’re not brave at all. Can you think of why it’s dangerous for someone who isn’t brave to be around?”
Candice pondered for a moment. “Because they’re scared, and they’ll . . . because they’ll be so scared they can’t think good?”
“I’m so proud of you.” Jessica nodded. “That’s exactly right. When people aren’t brave, when they’re scared, they sometimes don’t make good decisions. There are all kinds of bad decisions they might make, and some of them could be dangerous ones. People do dangerous things when they’re scared. And sometimes, when someone is really scared but is trying to act brave, and you make them think you know they’re not brave, they make really dangerous decisions. Does that make sense?”
“A little.”
“I promise you, with all my heart, with all my love, I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” Jessica tipped Candice’s chin up a little higher with a couple of fingers and looked right into her eyes. “Whatever it takes.” she repeated. “Right now, I think that means we should stay here. If that changes, then we’ll go do something else. But you have to trust me to figure all that out, because while you’re getting really big, you’re still little. My job is to figure things out so you don’t have to, so you can finish being little and become big.”
“I trust you.” Candice said, and Jessica had to dig deep through the morass of pain and loss that was muddling up everything inside her to keep from breaking down. The absolute conviction in the girl’s voice was terrifying. Jessica found herself needing to hold on to her emotions and her doubts as hard as she could to make sure she believed she was up to the challenge.
“So, to answer your question, I don’t know.” she said quietly, not just yet trusting her voice to not crack into sobs if she tried to speak louder. “But I’m paying attention, and one way or another I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, you and I need to stay here. We’re going to do what we can to help everyone keep this place safe, because that’s the best way for us to be safe. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Jessica agreed. “Now hop down so I can finish getting dressed. Dr. Morris needs to get back in here to gather some things so he can help hurt people in town, and he can’t do that until I’m dressed.”
Candice slid off the examination table, and Jessica resumed trying to get back into her slacks. As she fought with her bad leg, she focused on the simple things. Candice was safe. Everything was okay at the moment. That was what was important. And what she needed to keep herself strong.
* * * * *
Chapter Seven - Alone
Darryl
“How many again?” Bobo asked.
Darryl shrugged, glancing around the back yard briefly before returning his attention to the Dogz leader. The splintered fence boards had been replaced, and he saw some activity going on in the barn as people worked on organizing the stuff stored inside. “Said a couple thousand.”
“Bunch of zombies waiting to happen.” Big Chief muttered.
“Maybe not.” Bobo said thoughtfully. “Mr. Soul say what news there still is ain’t had too much to say about anybody else just up and turning biter.”
“News mostly rumor by now.”
“Maybe so, but we ain’t had no one else turn since Saturday neither.”
“Yet.”
Tank spoke suddenly. “Bro, you need to lay off that negative shit.”
Big Chief eyed the bigger man, an annoyed look on his face. “Ain’t negative if it true.”
“We don’t know if it is.” Bobo interjected. “We gonna stay careful, but we can sort of keep an eye on what happening over in Watkinsville. See if they have any more problems. That won’t be no rumor, it’ll be good intel.”
Darryl nodded, still watching EZ and Vivian working on what Bobo was calling ‘the big map’. It was just another road map from the gas station next to 78, but EZ and Vivian were updating it from all the other maps as the scouting teams returned and handed theirs over.
Jody had found pens and markers in a few different colors, and a notebook, amid the mass of mixed miscellanea the Dogz had pulled in so far. The map was getting information laid in using a color code EZ and Vivian were creating as they went; EZ marking the map while Vivian added more detailed information in the little spiral bound notebook.
Everyone on Bobo’s leadership list – except Mr. Soul, who was still covering whatever the televisions and radios could still offer – was gathered around one of the folding tables out on the patio. The light in the clubhouse was enough to walk around in, but not much good for anything else.
And with the sun up, the temperature in the stone building was climbing rapidly. Especially with the windows all boarded up against zombies. It was more comfortable outside, though Darryl made a point of glancing around at the fence a couple times a minute.
“We ain’t gonna even consider it?” Jody asked.
“Consider what?” Darryl said.
“I don’t know, working with them or something?”
“People is better than zombies, but they all a risk.” Bobo said in a level voice.
“Bobo, we can’t just sit here behind the fence forever.” she told him.
“We ain’t. That’s how we found out about Watkinsville.”
Jody’s face took on a petulant expression. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, and so do you. I been around in places where things start breaking down. People get funny, get greedy.”
“Like we ain’t?”
“We ain’t running around killing folks and stealing their shit.”
“Bobo, we doing plenty of—” she began, but Darryl leaned forward and slashed his hand across in front of himself.
“No, we ain’t. We taking stuff that laying around unclaimed.” he said firmly, stepping on his impulse toward anger. The Dogz weren’t malcontents or criminals, no matter what anyone not in the club might think when they saw a big pack of black bikers wearing club patches on their vests. That she’d even say something that suggested they were offended him.
“Same difference.”
“No, it ain’t.” he shook his head. “Kicking in the door to a house without nobody living there anymore not the same as ripping off folks who staying there. Or pointing guns and telling them to hand it over.”
“We ain’t thieves.” Bobo said. “Or hooligans.”
“I am.” EZ interjected, grinning broadly as Jody scowled at him.
Tank burst out laughing, and Bobo was momentarily stymied. Darryl was still annoyed, but even he was smiling a little as he answered.
“You was, and even then you never hurt no one or ran around waving guns at folks.”
“Stealing is stealing.”
“Bro, you never took shit someone couldn’t spare.” Darryl pointed out. “You said you always lifted new cars in good neighborhoods that had insurance.”
“And anyway, it don’t matter no more. EZ ain’t done anything since this shit started the rest of us ain’t; and the shit he did before only helping us keep from fumbling around trying to get food and stuff back here where we need it.”
“Yeah, can’t carry much on a bike.” Big Chief nodded.
“Right.” Bobo said, turning his attenti
on back to Jody. “We trying to survive, not fuck folks over. We paid for a bunch of stuff on Friday didn’t we?”
“And then grabbed a few truckloads of shit Friday night.”
“After zombies started eating folks.” Bobo said, gesturing at Darryl as he opened his mouth. Darryl sat back a little and started a cigarette as Bobo went on. “And we didn’t take nothing from someone else. There a difference between getting there first and holding someone up who beat us there.”
Jody took a deep breath, still frowning. “I just saying we gonna need friends if this go on like it looking it gonna.”
“We got friends.” Darryl said quickly, waving around at the people in and around the patio. Dogz lounging around, women and children scattered among them. “And it already hard enough to keep everyone going. Last thing we need is to hitch ourselves with a couple thousand more who gonna need stuff.
“I ain’t saying we should move over there.”
“We’re not.” Bobo said firmly.
“I know. But hands useful when there work that need doing.” Jody said, her eyes flashing a little.
“Like we don’t know that?” Tank said. “I ain’t see none of the women sweating out here with us when we put up the fence.”
“And I ain’t seen none of the men folk helping in the kitchen neither.” she snapped back.
“Everybody shut the fuck up.” Bobo commanded, his voice very firm. “We staying here. We gonna keep on like we are now. We doing our own thing, and so long as folks leave us be, there ain’t no problem. Ain’t no one coming to live with us here, but ain’t no need for us to go making sure everyone left breathing think they can just show up and borrow a fucking cup of sugar whenever the fuck they want. DJ right, we got our own to look after.
“There a difference between taking care of ourselves and being bad neighbors. Ain’t no problem with Watkinsville or any of the other folks the Dogz done spotted nearby. Unless they go to start messing with us, but that a whole other problem entirely. They all just trying to survive, same as us. And we go making out like we ready to help, we gonna get caught out by something that ain’t get done cause we running around being helpful.”